We're Home- A Gravity Falls story

Dipper Pov

I came home hours later, barely bothering to wave at the girls in the living room before heading into my room. I didn't want to think about what I had done, what I had said. I fell on my bed on top of the covers and buried my face in my pillow. I didn't bother turning the light off or taking my wet clothes off. I fell asleep seconds later.

The next morning

I woke up the next morning with my head feeling like it was stuffed to the brim with cotton. I opened my eyes and had to shut them immediately because the light coming from the window felt like daggers sticking through my eye sockets. I groaned and covered my head with my pillow. Someone knocked at the door and I looked up to see Mabel. I covered my head back up and groaned again.

"Hey Dip," She spoke softly as she sat down on my bed. I kept the pillow over my face as I listened to her.

"How are you feeling? Pacifica said you were soaked when you came back last night and you obviously didn't change, so you're probably sick." I nodded under the pillow and she clucked at me. 

"Well, I'll tell Grunkle Stan that you're off register for today. I'll have Wendy bring you up some soup in a little bit. Get out of those clothes and put some pjs on." She patted my stomach and before she left, she spoke up.

"I don't know everything you went through to protect me, but you need to talk about it. We're safe here, our family is here. If we can't trust these guys, then who can we trust?" She left after that, quietly shutting the door.

 I sat up carefully and sniffled a little. Mabel was right, and I knew it. I got up and took my clothes off and threw them on the floor. I pulled on a pair of pajama pants and went back to bed. I got under the covers and went back to sleep.

Wendy Pov

I had gotten up an hour or so before Mabel and Paz had. They were still asleep on the floor, and their arms were extended toward each other. I had gotten dressed quietly and crept outside. I took a walk to the convenience store and bought coffee and cereal bars for the three of us. I spent a few minutes loitering and talking to the cashier. 

As I was walking back, Mabel called me. She told me about Dipper being sick, so when I got back to the shack I made a pot of my mom's chicken soup. Mabel told me that Stan had taken me off of register to take care of Dipper. Weird. I gave them their coffee and cereal bars and they walked off to the gift shop.

I sat in the kitchen drinking my coffee and scrolling through my phone. I could hear Mabel and Pacifica in the gift shop, laughing and talking about something that had happened this morning after I had gotten up. I almost choked on my coffee when Stan slammed a hand on my back in greeting. 

"How's it going Mr. Pines? Thanks for givin' me the day off." He sat down across from me with a mug of coffee and a burger he had pulled from the fridge. He unwrapped the burger and took a bite before talking.

"Well someone has to take care of the kid. What all happened last night anyway? Mabel didn't want to tell me, which is uncharacteristically like her, seeing as she usually tells me everything."

I picked at the wrapper to my cereal bar while I tried to get my thoughts together to answer him.

"Well, he and I were talking last night and I brought something up and he kinda... went off. I don't want to tell you anything else, I think Mabel and Dipper need to be the ones to tell everybody. I'm gonna try and convince Dipper today, because I think Mabel's ready and just waiting for Dip." Stan sighed at that, and finished his burger before leaving to get dressed.

I stood up and heated up some soup and took it upstairs. I tapped on the door before walking into the room. Dipper was on his stomach, snoring slightly. I chuckled and put the bowl on his desk and sat on his bed. I looked at his face; watching his eyelids flicker and tracing his birthmark with my eyes. He looked so peaceful, it was hard to believe that he was hiding so much pain.

My eyes moved to his back, and I couldn't help the burst of pain I felt in my chest as I looked at the pain mapped out on my best friend's back. He had gone through so much shit, and all I wanted to do was shield him from the rest of the world.

I wanted to hold him, and make him forget everything that had happened to him. I wanted to take an eraser and make it all disappear. I wanted him to be ok.

He shifted, interrupting my musings, and I looked into his sleep-filled eyes. He smiled sleepily at me and I grabbed his hand.

"Morning tired-eyes. I brought you some of my mom's soup. She used to say it was guaranteed to cure any illness." He sat up and I shifted closer to him. He propped himself up against his pillows and yawned.

"Thanks. My heads pounding." He rubbed his head and sighed. I grabbed the bowl of soup and handed it to him. He took a spoonful and slurped dramatically. We cracked up and he continued eating.

I sat there and watched him eat, smiling softly. Once in a while, I caught glimpses of his old self, and it made me smile more.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I started from my ruminations and sighed as he put the bowl on his nightstand.

"I know you don't want to, but I know for a fact that talking about your issues helps. Please Dipper," I held his hand in mine, "please don't shut me out." He looked down and laughed slightly.

"Mabel said almost the same thing. You're right, you both are." He moved his legs to over the edge of his bed and sat up straighter. He looked out his window and took a deep breath in. When he released it, he looked into my eyes.

"After we went back to living with our parents, my mom and dad started fighting. A lot. Like all the time. It got to the point where our dad was taking extra shifts when ever he could to get away from her. And when he wasn't around for her to scream at, she moved onto us." He looked away for a second, but then his gaze returned to mine.

"It started small. She'd pinch us to get us to listen to her, she'd yell. But then, she started actually hitting us. And it only got worse. There was one time, I didn't have the dishes done before she got up, so she hit me with the wooden paper towel holder. Then there was the time she, uh. She kicked me down the stairs when I looked at her wrong. That wasn't the worst thing that she did to me though. She knew that the worst thing she could do to me was hurting Mabel right in front of me. Especially when she knew I couldn't do anything about it." He had tears coming down his cheeks by then, and I held both f his hands in mine.

"And then, this one," He gestured to left his side, right under his rib cage.

"This is where she stabbed me." I gasped, unable to believe someone could do something like that to him.

"I- I hate to say it, but I could handle it. All of the shit she did to me, I could handle it. I let her do whatever she wanted to me, because then, she wasn't hurting Mabel. I told her, after she had threatened to go after Mabel, that if she let Mabel be I wouldn't fight back. I'd let her do anything she wanted, as long as she left Mabel alone." 

He stopped talking then, and he just sat there with tears streaming down his face. I couldn't help it anymore and I cried. I cried for the boy I knew, for him having to go through that alone. And I cried for the man beside me, who had done everything for his sister and had made it out alive.

I started crying harder and got angry. Angry that someone could do something so horrendous to someone I loved. I stood up and stalked to the wall and slammed my fist into it as hard as I could.

"How could you be okay with that?" I turned to him, and I stomped over to him.

"Why would you stay? Why didn't you go to the police? Why didn't you tell your dad? Why didn't you tell Mabel? Why didn't you tell Stan? Why didn't you tell Me?" He stood up then, and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and held him as tight as he could, and he returned it equally. We stood there, crying and holding each other, for what seemed like hours.

We made our way to his bed, and we laid down beside each other and held onto the other for a while. 

I eventually fell asleep, listening to Dipper's breathing even out.